OREANDA-NEWS. SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) today announced that for the third year in a row, the company's LTE small cell technology has been recognized at the Small Cell Industry Awards held in London, UK.

This year, SK Telecom was awarded in the Innovation in Commercial Deployment category for its development of new LTE small cell solutions and deployment improvements.

The Small Cell Industry Awards, the world's most prestigious award in the field of small cells, recognizes outstanding contributions to the small cell industry. The awards organizer, Small Cell Forum, is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 2007 to accelerate small cell technology adoption and maximize the potential of mobile services worldwide. The Forum's 140 members include 68 mobile operators like SK Telecom, Vodafone, AT&T and NTT Docomo, as well as telecoms hardware and software vendors, content providers, and innovative start-ups.

Since commercializing LTE small cells in June 2012 for the first time in the world, SK Telecom has focused on developing technology that supports and enhances the performance of its core LTE small cell.

Last year, SK Telecom has commercially deployed three new small cell types, including Femto Remote System, LTE Outdoor Small Cell, and Compact Home Femto, or HeNB. In addition, the company improved current HeNB performance by implementing algorithms and solutions that solve handover problems resulting from limited PCI. Deployment of HeNBs and solutions was supported by SK Telecom's internally-developed, centralized SON.

With development and application of advanced LTE small cell technologies, SK Telecom is able to offer seamless data services to over 14.7 million LTE subscribers around the country.

"SK Telecom is truly honored to be recognized once again at the Small Cell Industry Awards for our work in small cell development and deployment," said Park Jin-hyo, Senior Vice President and Head of Network Technology R&D Center at SK Telecom. "As LTE small cells are the backbone of our customer experience, we remain dedicated to taking every opportunity to engineer even better performance and efficiency in small cell technology."